Behind every little thing we do to improve our customers’ Tesco experience there’s a team of IT experts working away. I’m not just talking about new shopping apps, or the launch of Tesco’s hudl tablet. I’m talking about how we make sure we’ve got the right stock on our shelves, the same prices on our labels as at the till, and the facility to ‘Scan as you Shop’ so you don’t have to queue.

Last week Philip, myself and a number of our senior colleagues were joined for the day by students from local schools to see how we run our business.
It was part of Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Day, an initiative that encourages organisations to open their doors to young people, so they can see how decisions are made and share their views on how we work.

At Tesco everyone is welcome and we passionately believe that everyone should be able to develop their careers and themselves. My job as UK and ROI Personnel Director is to make sure that happens, and to show people both inside and outside the business that everyone here has the opportunity to get on.
This week, I’ve had the chance to meet two groups of young people, to listen to their aspirations for their own careers and the reality of trying to get your first break in the current jobs market.

Looking back over the past year at Tesco, it’s been a pretty challenging time. In April 2012, we set out to turn around the UK business by putting the customer back at the heart of everything we do, but we couldn’t do that without the help and support of all our 300,000 colleagues. So when Philip announced his £1bn investment plan to Build a Better Tesco, ‘Staff and Service’ was No.1 of the six points he set out to improve.